TCDB trade roundup: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

I actually had some intention of getting this post done over the weekend but then TCDB needed to do its database migration and I didn't want to put this together without access to that, so here we are!

Again, I don't always feel like I have to have a theme, but I came up with eight trades that brought me between one and five cards and thought that would be a fun grouping. So here we go!

Deal #1 today is from Texas A&M fan amalum who sent me five total cards (one that's since gone out in another deal) for a college uni card of his team. I scored this quartet:

Yes I do get Verlanders from TCDB deals from time to time, and spoiler alert: you're about to see another one. The football cards were enjoyable adds as well. Calloway's obviously long been retired but Peppers (Pats) and Wormley (Steelers) are still active.

Next is a single card from BLWinborn40, a member I've now traded with twice. Not only did our first deal go just fine, but he also has more than 1000 successful transactions. So when my end of the trade fell off the face of the earth for about a month I knew not to blame him, and that paid off when it showed up from the black hole that USPS randomly assigns some PWEs for temporary storage. Anyway, I happily snagged this card in return for a couple 1996 and '97 Finest Silver Braves:

As far as manurelics go these plasticky 70th anniversary logos are kind of goofy, but at the cost of a couple cheap 90s cards I'm glad to grab another Verlander. It's actually my fourth manu-card of JV, with the others being more patch-like:

So it's no big deal to me that it's not some "premium" card because it's basically just a fun insert of one of my favorite players. And it was worth the wait!

Next, hey, do you all remember TCDB user cjjt, the guy who sent me the Michigan box stuffed with his Wolverine football (and others) dupes? Well he saw a few Michigan cards on my trade list and told me to pick out a few on his list to make a deal. I think that went very well:

Arrington is numbered /125, Avant 500, and Hart 999. Biakabutuka is a typically sweet Pinnacle Dufex card. And Harbaugh is from the hard-to-scan '98 Score Showcase Series parallel. Those bottom two guys are doing a fantastic job with the 7-0 Wolverines this year and I'm grateful for Hart's seemingly complete recover from a scary seizure he suffered on the sideline last week at Indiana. The quality of these inserts reminds me that I need to find more stuff on Chris' wantlist because there's much more available where this came from!

Kansas City guy homerjg007 was nice enough to work with me on a deal where I sent him 11 cards, a chunk of which were '96 Flair baseball dupes, for these four:

I'm slowly building a decent little Jesse Franklin collection and if I can keep adding Michigan uni cards like the Prizm insert above I'll be glad to continue that. I can't have Too Many Grandersons like the 2012 Heritage Chrome (#d /1963) above, even if he's with the Yanks. And a pair of excellent '97 Dean Palmers (Finest Silver Refractor and Pinnacle Totally Certified Platinum Blue /1999) bolster my #1 position on the site with 435 of his cards, nearly 150 better than the #2 collector. 90s inserts rule!

jj00148 is also a fan of a top-10 football team this year in Tennessee, who just knocked off Alabama in an instant classic. Anything that pisses off Nick Saban is good in my book. Anyway, I was able to flip him a pair of numbered football inserts I grabbed from the quarter box at a show for this Wolverine pair:

These are of course my two favorite players from the 2008 draft class, and among my all-time top 10: the previously seen Hart plus a new Henne as well. Mike's card is a 2008 Bowman Chrome Bronze parallel that's numbered /329. Meanwhile, Chad's card was found in 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear's Next Generation Silver version and is limited to 250 copies. Football inserts rule too!

If anyone is a fan of one or more of 2022 playoff heroes, Tigers that actually did well this season, or twice-fired managers, you'll enjoy this quartet from Martinma21 that I got in return for some 2020 Heritage and '21 Panini Mosaic cards:

Just to remind everyone, I was in the #CroneZone before it was cool! Though he finished the regular season in a bit of a slump he came up aces in the Padres' surprising upset of the Dodgers, going 7/16 with a homer and five RBI, including a game-winning two-run single to clinch the NLDS in game 4. Here you see him represented twice among the 60 total cards I now own of him. Greene is also an up-and-comer and I like the look of his '21 Donruss Optic Rated Prospect card even though "Rated Rookie" just sounds so much better. And the 2016 Bowman Family Tree Green parallel (/99) is my second of the six versions of the insert that pairs former Cardinals and Royals manager Mike Matheny with his son Tate.

Next, vintage lovers will likely get a kick out of my two-for-five deal with SaveDaKid. I was able to send him a pair of 2007-08 Topps basketball inserts for these:

If you're in this scan you're a winner, literally. Gator and Northrup were key pieces of the '68 champion Tigers, not that either knew that was in their future when their photos were taken for those '67 Topps issues that still look terrific today. The late Bergman had three years to wait until he'd enjoy the same celebration after he was shown on his '81 Topps Traded card depicting him with his third of four franchises (five if you count his very temporary stay with the Phillies in '84). Morris, the ace of the '84 staff, was still going strong over his HOF career in '86 when he won a career-high 21 games for the first of two seasons (and 20 for the second of three), with those stats captured on his '87 Drake's issue. Finally, star DB Rick Volk won it all in his second NFL season with Baltimore in 1968, four years before the Topps card you see above was made. What a great bunch of champs this group is!

And lastly, I'm happy to end this post on a strong note--a 90s inserts rule! note, to be precise--thanks to a deal I made with SeventhSon in which I sent a small mix of stars for the three below (plus another since included in a trade mailer):

Mr. Padre was the subject of many a great card from that decade, and even though the Ultra Diamond Mine insert is actually from 2000, we'll make that year an honorary member. Don't forget that we didn't really start getting great looking inserts until a few years in anyway. Regardless I love the diamond theme, silver foil, and great photo of the master of his craft.

No offense to that card at all but it can't hold a candle to the greatness of 1996 SPx and its Bound for Glory insert. If the first version of the die-cut hologram base set was a revelation, so was this chase set that also looked amazing.

And finally, yes, I consider the Silver and Gold versions of the base cards from 90s Finest to be inserts, and anyway, they rule. That's a great looking Maddux no matter what you call it.

That's eight more deals in the books but I still have a nice chunk left to cover in addition to a couplep more pending transactions there. To those I can add a couple eBay buys that'll get a post soon, and who knows what else. Look forward to reading about and seeing lots more cards soon!